Intracellular Mg2+ regulates ADP phosphorylation and adenine nucleotide synthesis in human erythrocytes.

13C- and 31P-NMR were used in methylene blue-treated human erythrocytes to determine the dependence on intracellular Mg2+ concentration ([Mg2+]i) of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), the glycolytic pathway, and adenine nucleotide synthesis. The PPP flux had an [Mg2+]i at half-maximal velocity ([Mg2+]i,0.5) of 0.02 mM, well below the physiological range (0.2-0.7 mM). Flux through the PPP was reduced at higher [Mg2+]i as flux through phosphofructokinase was increased ([Mg2+]i,0.5 = 0.16 mM). [Mg2+]i,0.5 of phosphoglycerate kinase flux, which equals net ADP phosphorylation rate, was 0.27 mM, well within the physiological [Mg2+]i range. The rate of adenine nucleotide synthesis from [2-13C]glucose-derived ribose 5-phosphate and exogenous adenine also exhibited dependence on [Mg2+]i but was not saturable up to 1.6 mM. Therefore, net flux through the PPP and glycolytic pathways in erythrocytes is not strongly dependent on [Mg2+]i at physiological ion concentrations, but both ADP phosphorylation and adenine nucleotide synthesis are likely to be regulated by normal fluctuations in [Mg2+]i.

The regulatory role for magnesium in glycolytic flux of the human erythrocyte.

31P NMR was used to measure the intracellular free magnesium concentration ([Mg2+]i) in human erythrocytes while [Mg2+]i was changed between 0.01 and 1.2 mM using the divalent cationophore A23187. 13C NMR and [2-13C]glucose were used to determine the kinetic effects of [Mg2+]i by measuring the flux through several parts of the glucose pathway. Glucose utilization was strongly dependent on [Mg2+]i, with half-maximal flux occurring at 0.03 mM. The rate-limiting step was most likely at phosphofructokinase, which has a Km(Mg2+) of 0.025 mM in the purified enzyme. Phosphorylated glycolytic intermediate concentration was also strongly dependent on [Mg2+]i and [MgATP], and glucose transport plus hexokinase may have been partially rate-determining at [Mg2+]i below approximately 0.1 mM. The pentose phosphate shunt activity was too low to determine the dependence on [Mg2+]i. Phosphoglycerate kinase and 2, 3-diphosphoglycerate mutase fluxes were also measured, but were not rate-limiting for glycolysis and showed no Mg2+ dependence. Human erythrocyte [Mg2+]i varies between 0.2 mM (oxygenated) and 0.6 mM (deoxygenated), well above the measured [Mg2+]i(1/2). It is unlikely, then, that [Mg2+]i plays a regulatory role in normal erythrocyte glycolysis.

Effect of substrate on mitochondrial NADH, cytosolic redox state, and phosphorylated compounds in isolated hearts.

The effect of metabolic substrates on the relation among cytosolic redox state (NADHc/NAD+) mitochondrial NADH (NADHm), and [ATP]/([ADP] x [Pi]) was studied in isolated working rabbit hearts. Substrates were varied from 5.6 mM glucose alone to glucose in combination with 10 mM lactate and/or 10 mM pyruvate while afterload and preload were held constant. Changes in NADHm were determined from epicardial NADH fluorescence. The ratio of glycerol 3-phosphate (G-3-P) to dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), determined from tissue extracts, was used as an index of cytosolic redox. Myocardial 31P metabolites were measured using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The addition of pyruvate to the perfusion medium caused increases in myocardial oxygen consumption (MVo2), NADHm fluorescence, phosphocreatine (PCr), and [ATP]/([ADP] x [Pi]) and a decrease in NADHc/NADc+ (decreased G-3-P/DHAP). Although the addition of lactate to the perfusion medium caused an increase in NADHm similar to pyruvate, MVo2 and PCr did not change significantly, [ATP]/([ADP] x [Pi]) increased less than with pyruvate, and there was an increase in NADHc/NADc+. The findings suggest that variations in the cytosolic redox state do not necessarily result in obligatory changes in either the mitochondrial redox state or in the [ATP]/([ADP] x [Pi]). This implies that under the conditions of this study an equilibrium is not maintained between [ATP]/([ADP] x [Pi]) and NADHc/NADc+. Furthermore, similar levels of NADHm can be associated with different values for [ATP]/([ADP] x [Pi]) and MVo2, depending on the substrates available to the heart.

The relationship between phosphorylation potential and redox state in the isolated working rabbit heart.

The effects of the cytosolic and mitochondrial redox state on the function and phosphorylation potential of working perfused rabbit hearts were studied. Hearts were perfused with glucose, while lactate, aminooxy-acetate (an inhibitor of the malate-aspartate shuttle), beta-hydroxybutyrate, and pyruvate were sequentially added to the perfusate to manipulate the cytosolic and mitochondrial NAD+/NADH ratio. The phosphorylation potential and product of ADP and P(i) were both found to be proportional to mitochondrial redox state. There was no overall relationship between cytosolic redox potential and the ATP/ADP x P(i) ratio, although at high mitochondrial NADH, there was a tendency for the states with more reduced cytoplasm to be associated with a lower phosphorylation potential. Cardiac output and dP/dt were decreased after 75 microM aminooxy-acetate was present for 15 min, and remained low when 0.5-1.0 mM beta-hydroxybutyrate was added, even though the beta-hydroxybutyrate period was characterized by both very low cytosolic NAD+/NADH and high mitochondrial NADH. Function returned to normal when the cytoplasm was oxidized by addition of 10 mM pyruvate, and although MVO2 rose from 4.0 +/- 0.4 to 5.0 +/- 0.5, this was not accompanied by statistical changes in either mitochondrial NADH or phosphorylation potential. Therefore, the cytosolic redox state may play a role in cardiac function, but has only a minor contribution to the regulation of the phosphorylation potential in the working perfused rabbit heart.

Nonglucose substrates increase glycogen synthesis in vivo in dog heart.

The effects of circulating nonglucose substrates on insulin-stimulated cardiac glycogen synthesis were studied in the dog heart in vivo using 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance (-NMR) and arteriovenous difference techniques. [1-13C]glycogen was monitored in hearts during an intravenous infusion of 20 mU/min insulin and glucose while [1-13C]glucose (10 mg/min) was infused into the left anterior descending coronary artery. When 1 mmol/min of lactate, pyruvate, or beta-hydroxybutyrate was added to the venous infusion, the measured rate of glycogen synthesis was increased, on average, sixfold. It was not increased further after a subsequent 10-min infusion of 5 micrograms/min epinephrine. Lactate extraction increased from 0.18 +/- 0.05 to 0.62 +/- 0.11 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1 during lactate infusion, whereas glucose extraction did not change significantly (0.15 +/- 0.05 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1 at 45 min of insulin and glucose infusion to 0.09 +/- 0.02 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1 at 45 min of the lactate infusion). Therefore, the uptake and oxidation of circulating nonglucose substrates redirects the fate of extracted glucose from glycolysis to glycogen synthesis in the dog heart in vivo.

Pyruvate and lactate metabolism in the in vivo dog heart.

Pyruvate increases the phosphorylation potential in perfused heart to a greater extent than the closely correlated substrate L-lactate. Therefore, metabolism of these compounds was studied in the myocardium of intact dogs. Phosphocreatine/ATP was increased 23% at 5.3 mM plasma pyruvate but was not significantly increased by lactate except at the highest concentration (17.5 mM in blood). Calculated [ADP] fell during pyruvate infusion from 51.5 +/- 2.0 to 38.6 +/- 3.3 microM but did not change significantly during lactate infusion. Intracellular free [Mg2+] fell from 705 +/- 53 to 498 +/- 30 microM at the highest pyruvate infusion and from 692 +/- 112 to 417 +/- 19 microM with lactate infusion. Extraction of both substrates was linear at low concentrations, reaching 0.56 mumol lactate.min-1.g wet wt-1 at 17.5 mM blood lactate and 0.58 mumol pyruvate.min-1.g wet wt-1 at 5.3 mM plasma pyruvate. Therefore, lactate uptake was almost five times lower than pyruvate uptake at similar concentrations. Elevated pyruvate (> 3 mM) resulted in almost complete inhibition of net lactate uptake. Infused [3-13C]lactate or -pyruvate gave rise to labeled glutamate and alanine in vivo, but labeled lactate was not visible when [3-13C]pyruvate was the substrate. The 13C enrichment of myocardial lactate was similar to alanine and acetyl CoA with infused [3-13C]lactate but was only one-half that of alanine and acetyl CoA when [3-13C]-pyruvate was the substrate, indicating a possible inhibition of lactate dehydrogenase.

The time course of myocardial glycogenolysis stimulated by glucagon.

The rate of glycogenolysis was measured using 13C-NMR in vivo in the rat heart following a glucagon bolus. Glycogen that had just been synthesized during a 50 min infusion of D-[1-13C]glucose and insulin was degraded at a rate of 2.5 mumol/min/g wet wt following a 250 micrograms bolus of glucagon. If a second 50 min infusion of unlabelled glucose followed the D-[-13C]glucose, the rate of mobilization of the labelled glycogen following glucagon was slower (0.52 mumol/min/g wet wt), indicating that the labeled glycogen was less accessible to the activated phosphorylase. Glycogen phosphorylase a (GPa) activity was measured in hearts freeze-clamped at intervals after the glucagon bolus. Activity rose rapidly to 6-fold basal and then returned to basal over 20-30 min (t1/2 decay of phosphorylase activity = 5.1 min). This time course paralleled the exponential fall in heart glycogen which followed glucagon (t1/2 = 4.3 min). Throughout the post-glucagon period the activity of phosphorylase exceeded the rate of glycogenolysis. These findings suggest that the activity of the phosphorylated form of glycogen phosphorylase (GPa) is an important but not the sole determinant of glycogen breakdown in the heart after a glucagon bolus.

Regulation of glycogen metabolism in canine myocardium: effects of insulin and epinephrine in vivo.

Myocardial glycogen synthesis and glucose, lactate, and oxygen extraction were measured in the hearts of anesthetized dogs during infusions of insulin and epinephrine. Glycogen was monitored in vivo using 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance during an infusion of [1-13C]glucose into the left anterior descending artery. Glycogen synthesis was observed during a venous infusion of insulin (1.8 microU.min-1.kg-1), and this newly synthesized glycogen was neither broken down nor was more glycogen synthesized during a subsequent epinephrine infusion (0.5 micrograms.min-1.kg-1). During recovery from epinephrine, glycogen synthesis occurred at 2.1 times the rate seen in the control period. Glycogen synthesis was not stimulated in the absence of epinephrine by control infusions of saline. Glucose uptake was increased by insulin during the control period (from 0.09 to 0.39 mumol.min-1.g-1), so that the combined extraction of glucose and lactate exceeded the requirement for oxidizable substrate calculated from oxygen consumption. The "excess" glucose (0.15 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1) is presumably available for glycogen synthesis. During recovery from epinephrine, lactate uptake was increased over threefold. Because this additional lactate supplies most of the fuel required for oxidation, the excess glucose available for glycogen synthesis during this period was two times that seen before epinephrine (an average of 0.32 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1 between 20 and 40 min postepinephrine). These data are consistent with the notion that glycogen synthesis can be activated in the heart without an accompanying increase in glucose uptake by providing an alternative substrate (i.e., lactate) for oxidation.

Hypoxemic stimulation of heart glycogen synthase and synthesis. Effects of insulin and diabetes mellitus.

With radiotracer and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR) methods, we studied the time course of glycogen resynthesis after three 90-s episodes of hypoxemia in both control and diabetic rats in vivo. Glycogen synthesis was measured in the presence and absence of infused insulin and compared with the changes in glycogen synthase (GS) and phosphorylase activities. We observed in 13C-NMR spectra the expected mobilization of glycogen during hypoxia in vivo. In control rats with or without exogenous insulin, this was followed by a rapid resynthesis of glycogen during a 40-min recovery period. A marked activation of GS was observed by 10 min (glucose-6-phosphate-independent form of GS [GSl] = 0.65 mumol.min-1.g-1 or 92% of total GS), and activation persisted up to 40 min in both groups. Glycogen synthesis during the recovery period averaged 0.51 and 0.45 mumol.min-1.g-1 in the saline- and insulin-treated rats, respectively. In the diabetic rats by 10 min after hypoxemia, GSl increased only modestly in both saline-treated (0.16 mumol.min-1.g-1) and insulin-treated (0.21 mumol.min-1.g-1) rats, and activation persisted up to 40 min only with insulin treatment. Glycogen synthesis was slower in the diabetic rats given insulin (0.28 mumol.min-1.g-1) and essentially absent in the saline-treated rats (0.03 mumol.min-1.g-1) compared with controls. We conclude that recovery from hypoxemia is accompanied by a marked activation of GSl and rapid rates of glycogen synthesis in nondiabetic rats, and diabetes markedly blunts this response. Acute insulin infusion only partially overcomes this block.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Simultaneous synthesis and degradation of rat liver glycogen. An in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic study.

Using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic methods we examined in vivo the synthesis of liver glycogen during the infusion of D-[1-13C]glucose and the turnover of labeled glycogen during subsequent infusion of D-[1-13C]glucose. In fasted rats the processes of glycogen synthesis and degradation were observed to occur simultaneously with the rate of synthesis much greater than degradation leading to net glycogen synthesis. In fed rats, incorporation of infused D-[1-13C]glucose occurred briskly; however, over 2 h there was no net glycogen accumulated. Degradation of labeled glycogen was greater in the fed versus the fasted rats (P less than 0.001), and the lack of net glycogen synthesis in fed rats was due to degradation and synthesis occurring at similar rates throughout the infusion period. There was no indication that suppression of phosphorylase a or subsequent activation of glycogen synthase was involved in modulation of the flux of tracer into liver glycogen. We conclude that in both fed and fasted rats, glycogen synthase and phosphorylase are active simultaneously and the levels of liver glycogen reached during refeeding are determined by the balance between ongoing synthetic and degradative processes.

13C NMR relaxation times of hepatic glycogen in vitro and in vivo.

The field dependence of relaxation times of the C-1 carbon of glycogen was studied in vitro by natural-abundance 13C NMR. T1 is strongly field dependent, while T2 does not change significantly with magnetic field. T1 and T2 were also measured for rat hepatic glycogen enriched with [1-13C]glucose in vivo at 4.7 T, and similar relaxation times were observed as those obtained in vitro at the same field. The in vitro values of T1 were 65 +/- 5 ms at 2.1 T, 142 +/- 10 ms at 4.7 T, and 300 +/- 10 ms at 8.4 T, while T2 values were 6.7 +/- 1 ms at 2.1 T, 9.4 +/- 1 ms at 4.7 T, and 9.5 +/- 1 ms at 8.4 T. Calculations based on the rigid-rotor nearest-neighbor model give qualitatively good agreement with the T1 field dependence with a best-fit correlation time of 6.4 X 10(-9) s, which is significantly smaller than tau M, the estimated overall correlation time for the glycogen molecule (ca. 10(-5) s). A more accurate fit of T1 data using a modified Lipari and Szabo approach indicates that internal fast motions dominate the T1 relaxation in glycogen. On the other hand, the T2 relaxation is dominated by the overall correlation time tau M while the internal motions are almost but not completely unrestricted.

Measurement of myocardial glycogen synthesis in diabetic and fasted rats.

Diabetes and fasting provoke an increase in heart glycogen content, despite a decline in the amount of active glycogen synthase present. To determine if the activity of glycogen synthase i is still rate limiting for glycogen synthesis, we used 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance to measure the in vivo rate of glycogen synthesis and compared this with the activity of glycogen synthase and phosphorylase measured in tissue extracts using physiological concentrations of substrates and activators. In the basal state the activity of glycogen synthase i was depressed in the diabetic and fasted hearts (P less than 0.01). The rate of heart glycogen synthesis was measured during a 50-min infusion of D-[1-13C]-glucose (10 mg/min) and insulin (1 U/min) and averaged 0.32 +/- 0.04 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1 in controls and was diminished in both the diabetic (0.18 +/- 0.04 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1) and fasted (0.16 +/- 0.03 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1) and fasted (0.16 +/- 0.03 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1) rats (P less than 0.05 for each). During the glucose and insulin infusion the average activity of glycogen synthase i was greater in control than diabetic or fasted hearts (P less than 0.01 for each) and approximated the rates of net glycogen synthesis in each group. In contrast, there were no significant differences in phosphorylase alpha activity, measured in tissue extracts, among the three groups. Furthermore, although this phosphorylase alpha activity greatly exceeded synthase activity, it did not appear to be expressed in vivo. We conclude that in normal, diabetic, and fasted rats, glycogen synthase is rate limiting for glycogen synthesis.

NMR measurements of in vivo myocardial glycogen metabolism.

Using 13C and 1H NMR we measured the rate of glycogen synthesis (0.23 +/- 0.10 mumol/min gram wet weight tissue (gww) in rat heart in vivo during an intravenous infusion of D-[1-13C]glucose and insulin. Glycogen was observed within 10 min of starting and increased linearly throughout a 50-min infusion. This compared closely with the average activity of glycogen synthase I (0.22 +/- 0.03 mumol/min gww) measured at physiologic concentrations of UDP-glucose (92 microM) and glucose-6-phosphate (110 microM). When unlabeled glycogen replaced D-[1-13C]glucose in the infusate after 50 min the D-[1-13C]glycogen signal remained stable for another 60 min, indicating that no turnover of the newly synthesized glycogen had occurred. Despite this phosphorylase a activity in heart extracts from rats given a 1 h glucose and insulin infusion (3.8 +/- 2.4 mumol/min gww) greatly exceeded the total synthase activity and if active in vivo should promote glycogenolysis. We conclude that during glucose and insulin infusion in the rat: (a) the absolute rate of myocardial glycogen synthesis can be measured in vivo by NMR; (b) glycogen synthase I can account for the observed rates of heart glycogen synthesis; (c) there is no futile cycling of glucose in and out of heart glycogen; and (d) the activity of phosphorylase a measured in tissue extracts is not reflected in vivo. These studies raise the question whether significant regulation of phosphorylase a activity in vivo is mediated by factors in addition to its phosphorylation state.